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Coach Chris Partridge is officially back at Michigan

Chris Balasby: Chris Balas02/08/23Balas_Wolverine

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has made a move to his coaching staff, announcing that former U-M assistant Chris Partridge would return to Ann Arbor. Partridge started his collegiate career at Michigan as Director of Player Personnel, coached safeties, linebackers, and special teams at U-M before accepting a job at Ole Miss in 2020.

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Partridge was let go this year after serving as the team’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for three seasons.

“Chris has been a trusted agent, known friend and ally since we started working together in 2015,” Harbaugh said in a release. “He is a phenomenal teacher and coach and will be a major asset to our team, program, and university community. We are so excited to have Chris, his wife, Marissa, and daughters, Mia and Gianna, back in Ann Arbor and part of the Michigan Football family.”

Harbaugh did not specify which position group Partridge would coach, but as previously reported here last week, there is expected to be staff movement.

“My family and I could not be more excited to be back in Ann Arbor,” Partridge said. “Michigan has always remained a huge part of us. I appreciate Coach Harbaugh for having continued trust and faith in me to help him with the championship brand of football he has established.

“I look forward to working with the staff to recruit, mentor and coach the incredible young men that make Michigan the best football program on and off the field in the world! Go Blue!”

Per the release, Ole Miss set a school record for most wins in a season with 10 during the 2021 season. Partridge helped make a massive improvement in the Rebel defense over the past few seasons, with his safeties increasing their production each season. The program also tied the record for the most players drafted with six during the 2022 NFL Draft, including four players on the defensive side of the ball.

Partridge helped lead a defensive unit that has ranked among the nation’s best during his first stint on the U-M staff. The Wolverines ranked first or second nationally in pass defense in each of his four seasons and helped make the defense one of the stoutest third-down units in the country over that span.

Under his direction, seven Wolverine defenders earned nine All-Big Ten accolades, including two first-team honors. He also helped Jabrill Peppers to a decorated season in 2016, when he was a consensus All-American at linebacker, won the Big Ten’s Nagurski-Woodson Defensive Player of the Year, Butkus-Fitzgerald Linebacker of the Year and Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year awards, and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Peppers was a winner or finalist for seven additional national honors.

Michigan’s special teams also saw an uptick under Partridge. Six individuals earned 10 All-Big Ten honors including 2018 second-team All-American punter Will Hart, who was also named the Big Ten’s Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year and set the single-season and single-game punting average records.

Partridge came to Ann Arbor after serving as head coach at New Jersey’s Paramus Catholic High School. He grew a football program listed 4,250th nationally and 112th in the state of New Jersey to the top-ranked team in the state and No. 4 nationally by USA Today. He coached and mentored more than 30 Division I football players during that time, as well as various All-Americans.

Partridge earned his bachelor’s degree in government and law from Lafayette College in 2003.

Watch for more on this development in the hours and days to come …

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